BROOMFIELD -- The City Council on Tuesday night passed the final reading of an ordinance that will temporarily ban marijuana-related businesses until 2015, then allow residents to vote on the issue.

Council members voted 7-3 in favor of temporarily banning marijuana businesses through January 2015. Voters could decide whether to permanently keep the ban or allow the marijuana industry to move into the city.

Council members Bob Gaiser, Sam Taylor and Mike Shelton voted against the ban.

The temporary ban is meant to put the decision in the hands of voters but also gives Broomfield time to see how the state and other cities work out their own regulations on the matter. Broomfield follows cities such as Erie, Lafayette and Longmont, which have temporary bans or a moratorium on recreational pot businesses.

Waiting for the state's marijuana task force to recommend rules and regulations will save Broomfield a lot of staff time and headaches in the long run, said Mayor Pro Tem Greg Stokes.

When working out issues such as types of packaging, labeling, advertising policies and other regulatory details, "I'd rather have the task force take care of those issues instead of them being dumped in the lap of our staff," Stokes said.

Residents will likely have a chance to vote on making the marijuana business ban permanent during the 2014 election, and the ban will either expire Jan. 31, 2015, or be upheld by voters.

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The ordinance does not explicitly guarantee a 2014 vote -- either the City Council or voters will have to officially ask for a ballot initiative.

Yet council members said they were confident that voters would have the last say.

"If the voters want (marijuana businesses) in town, we'll have them in town," said council member Kevin Jacobs.

During public comment, however, several residents said any ban could be regarded as an anti-marijuana attitude or a premature move against a legitimate industry that could benefit Broomfield's tax base and residents as a whole.

Lori Tabbert, a longtime Broomfield resident who uses medical marijuana to manage pain as she waits to have surgery, said she was disappointed that the council was considering a ban. Her injuries affect her mobility, and a nearby marijuana business would reduce the distance she has to drive to get prescriptions. She is allergic to most pharmaceutical painkillers.

"Your residents use this drug for medicinal reasons and need your help," she said.

Before her injuries, she looked down on marijuana, but the drug has since helped save her life, she said.

"I was (once) the one saying, 'I don't want that in my community. It's bad,'" she said.

Other residents applauded a ban, however.

In an email to council members, resident John Dzilvelis asked for a ban because marijuana-related businesses would be "a disservice to the youth of Broomfield" that validates drug use for young people.

Though Broomfield residents have voted to allow both the medicinal use of marijuana in 2000 and recreational use in 2012, Broomfield voters struck down a 2010 ballot question that would have allowed medical marijuana facilities in the city.

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